The Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah)
Book 4, The Book of Women
Yale University Press
Published on 10. September 1972
Book
Hardback
453 pages
978-0-300-01438-9 (ISBN)
Description
From the point of view of method and organization, the Code of Maimonides, written in the twelfth century, is still considered one of the great codes in the history of jurisprudence. The Book of Women, the fourth book in the Code, consists of five treatises dealing with the laws on marriage, divorce, levirate marriage, and Halishah, the virgin maiden, and the wayward woman. Many of these regulations are roughly comparable to modern family law. In compiling the treatises, Maimonides augmented the basic stipulations of the Talmud with subsequent legal developments and included laws that had long been inoperative, among them the penalties for the rape or seduction of a virgin.
Talmudic law itself, according to the editor's introduction, reflects the steady improvement in the status of women in Jewish society. Once virtually a chattel of her father or brother, she gradually acquired the rights of a free person, "practically on a par with the adult male." Rabbi Klein emphasizes the social assumptions about the meaning and purpose of marriage behind these legal developments, noting the painstaking and critical insight Maimonides brought to his sources.
Talmudic law itself, according to the editor's introduction, reflects the steady improvement in the status of women in Jewish society. Once virtually a chattel of her father or brother, she gradually acquired the rights of a free person, "practically on a par with the adult male." Rabbi Klein emphasizes the social assumptions about the meaning and purpose of marriage behind these legal developments, noting the painstaking and critical insight Maimonides brought to his sources.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Weight
758 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-01438-9 (9780300014389)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Translation